Foolish Dictionary

Here is a book that treats the English language with magnificent contempt. Written in 1904 by Charles Wayland Towne under the pen name Gideon Wurdz, this satirical dictionary takes common words and beats them into bizarre, hilarious new shapes. Rather than offering genuine definitions, Towne invents absurdist meanings that reveal the ridiculous pomposity hidden in everyday language. A 'gentleman' becomes someone who can carve a turkey; 'economy' is defined by the length of a woman's skirt. The humor ranges from clever wordplay to pure nonsense, making it impossible to predict what delight awaits on the next page. It captures a vanished era when wit was considered a civilizing art and no word was too sacred to be mocked. Readers curious about early 20th century humor, linguistic play, or the strange history of American wit will find plenty to savor here, even if some of the jokes have aged as poorly as the attitudes that produced them.